Not Falling Short

Injury Epidemiology of Falls in Iowa

Nicolas Foss, Ed.D., MS

2025-09-26

Objectives

Today we will look at…

  • injury data where injuries occurred in Iowa
  • overall statistics on falls
  • the distribution of falls across:
    • geographic areas
    • demographic groups
  • survival among patients who fell

About the data

Source: Iowa Trauma Registry from 2020-2024.

  • Check out Trauma Data Registry for inclusion criteria.
  • The trauma registry…
    • …houses data on the most severe injuries.
    • …does not register all injuries in Iowa.
      • Iowa Hospital Association’s Inpatient Outpatient dataset = comprehensive

Falls at a glance

Year over year, since 2020, falls make up > 55% of all injury events in Iowa. Same-level falls grow rapidly.

A statistical table showing counts of fall events in Iowa 2020-2024.

At what rate do we fall?

A statistical table showing counts of total injury and fall events with corresponding rates in Iowa 2020-2024.

Who falls the most?

A statistical table of the count of falls by 10-year age groups from 0-9 to 100+ along with sparklines showing trends by age group from 2020-2024.

Where do we fall?